


Road Tripped

by NavyRuby



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Emetophobia, F/F, Friends to Lovers, I wrote this with human bodies in mind but like it's cool if you wanna imagine them as animals, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mental Breakdown, Post-Canon, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-09 12:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11104476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NavyRuby/pseuds/NavyRuby
Summary: "Let's get out of here"Your typical 'Mae and Bea go on a road trip' story





	1. Lets go Lets go Lets go

The sun, the inexorable sun. It shone through her window, barging into her room like a soldier after the quartering acts were established. Or something. That was the only reason war was justified in Mae’s mind; to keep the British out of her room, or was it the sun out of her eyes? The metaphor got all jumbled up the closer she got to being awake.

Slowly Mae got out of bed, slowly she began to go through her morning motions. Hair, teeth, putting on the same worn out jeans from yesterday (and yesterday’s yesterday). Ever since the ending of the mining fiasco two months ago her mornings were thankfully dull. Thankfully free of migraines and stress vomiting into the toilet. Just regular.

Was she a bad person for wanting the dreams back though? Mae hadn’t been dreaming at all since then, she missed having something to occupy her nights, missed the ghost musicians in their little towers. She didn’t miss God though, he was an asshole. Nowadays she just woke up with an awful taste in her mouth and she’d have to rush to the bathroom to wash it out before it made her nauseous. It was what she supposed a tire that had just hit roadkill tasted like.

When she came back to her room she hastily grabbed her laptop and opened it to messages from Bea. Yay! But none from Gregg. Oh.

That was fine, it was fine of course! Gregg had his own life and this was the first day in a while that she hadn’t had a good morning message from her old friend.

‘ _He has his own life Mae, you really need to get used to it_ ’

The messages from Bea were the same affair as they always have been, yet another reassuring notch in her daily routine. Bea would talk a little about her morning or what they did last night, and then invite Mae over to the Pickaxe to hang out. Mae appreciated it, but she knew deep down that Bea was only spending so much time with her because she missed Angus. They were both dealing with pretty big social holes in their lives ever since the boys moved away.

I guess in the end, after all they went through, it was hard to let go of each other. Mae was scared everyday that the cult would happen again, that the black goat would happen again. She was even more scared though of Bea somehow finding a way to get out of Possum Springs like Gregg and Angus, leaving Mae to deal with the past and future on her own.

‘ _You’re being selfish, stop it._ ’

Mae knew that the voice in her head was right, it always was. She vividly remembered her big speech to the Black Goat in that hopeless sinkhole- repeated it to herself as she went to sleep. She was going to hold on until it hurt, but that didn’t mean she had to hurt others while she held onto them.

Shoving her boots on, Mae made her way to the Pickaxe.

 

-

 

When Mae opened up the door to the ol' Pickaxe she had to resist the urge, as she always did with every door, to kick it open with her clunky boot. Instead she pushed it open with her hands and was more comforted with the ringing of the bell rather than the shattering of the glass.

“Hey Beabea!” She slid up to the counter in her regular, familiar way.

Bea flicked the ashes off of her cigarette into the small ashtray next to the cash register, it was only five P.M and the tray was already full, “Hey,” She said stiffly.

The silence stuck. Mae was prepared for something a little more...Friendly? Sure Bea was usually cold but this wasn’t her regular chilly attitude. It reminded Mae of their reunion when she first got back into town. Anxiety began biting at her skin.

Mae used her better judgement and didn’t jump up on the counters like she usually would, instead she stood in front of Bea and shoved her hands in her pockets, playing with the worn insides to calm herself down, “Are you alright?”

Her friend looked down at her, a cloudy expression filling her eyes, the eyes that Mae would normally love getting lost in, “Yeah?”

“Well you really don’t sound alright,” Mae had to look away, it felt like a staring contest that she was born to lose, “...Is it regular work stress or is it something worse?”

With the mention of work Bea’s shoulders immediately lowered, like someone had just put fifty pound weights on her back. She took a second to answer, taking the last long drag of her cigarette. Every moment that passed felt like an eternity to Mae.

“I’m fine,” Bea turned away.

“You’re lying,” Mae said bravely after a pause. She wasn’t the best at reading most people but she was slightly better at reading Bea.

“I know.”

The way that Bea, her badass best friend Bea, sounded with the weight of those two words _hurt_. Every inch of Mae now felt the full force of her previous anxiety only amplified, her hands gripped the inside of her pockets so roughly that it stung and she realized that she had been grabbing at her skin through the holes in the pockets. She didn’t stop.

A few more seconds of silence. Mae couldn’t handle it. The implications of Bea’s stress were so hidden and so intense that when Mae tried to guess what had happened it felt like her brain was cramping. Leave it to Bea to be able to say so much while being so vague.

The silence filled up Mae’s throat so much that she had to do something to get it out.

“Let’s leave!” She spat out like a cough.

“What?”

“Let’s just get out of here! Please!” Mae’s tone turned desperate.

Bea looked around, probably checking if any customers had heard that; There was no one in there, “Oh, uh,” She continued thinking for a few seconds, making cursory ‘thinking’ noises.

“It doesn’t have to be for long, and I know you have a job, and your dad, but a few days can’t hurt right?” Mae began rambling.

“Sure.”

“I mean, I know this is crazy and impromptu and like maybe even weird? I’m sorry that I asked but you really seem like you need it!” She continued.

“I _said_ sure.”

“I don’t know where we’d go but as long as it’s not here you know? And, and, and-”

Bea leaned forward over the counter and grabbed Mae’s hands with a firm grip, “Mae.”

“...Yes?”

“Let’s get out of here.”

 

-

 

It had only took ten minutes to lock up the store. And since most of the employee’s shifts ended at around four Bea was the only person left to man the store. Thankfully meaning that she didn’t have to make excuses about suddenly leaving.

On the way to Bea’s house Mae had kept nervously rambling, now feeling guilty for dragging her friend away from her job. She had wanted to make sure that Bea was sure about this but, even after asking that exact question, the words just kept tumbling out.

Bea let her go on, even after they both collected over night stuff from their respective houses. She wasn't feeling like talking much at the moment anyways. Say what you want about Mae Borowski but she was really efficient at filling the spaces where silence should go.

Mae only stopped once the car had passed the city line.

“So, where are we going?”

Bea rolled down the window slightly so she could let the smoke out, the chill from the outside was as invading as the morning sun, “I have no idea.”

Mae perked up, “And that’s a good thing right?"

“We’ll find out.”

The smaller one threw her hands up, “Finally, you learned a little something about the art of spontaneity!”

“Well,” Bea flicked ashes off out the window, “You’re a pretty good teacher Mae.”

“New job!”

“Not a job.”

Mae smirked, “It totally is a job, haven’t you seen improv classes?”

“That’s less of a job and more of an acting thing,” Bea snorted.

“Acting’s a job!”

“It sure is Mae.”

Another silence fell between them, but this time it was more palpable, it felt better than any other silence Mae had been in before. This, she thought, is why you hang around Beatrice Santello. She knows how to make silence a good thing.

‘ _Well that and the bazillion other reasons you hang around her_ ’

“True.”

“What?” Bea said.

Mae’s face tinged with embarrassment, “Did I say that out loud?”

Bea squinted at her, “Yea,” her tone was the normal (lovingly) judgmental one that Mae had gotten used to over the years. Thankfully Bea let the subject drop.

‘ _Be-a-Trice San-Tell-o_ ’

 


	2. Yeah Yeah Yeah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I, much like Mae, love muscles. So here's this chapter.

It was all going well. Too well even, if you considered Mae’s growing fear of dissociation. This was the first time she had been out of town since college and...Well, it was fucking terrifying is what it was. Bea had her back though and while Mae really meant the stuff about her being home enough, she was still afraid.

‘ _ Relax, you’re not gonna go nuts and have a breakdown. That hasn’t happened in like forever _ ’ Like always, the voice was right. Mae really had a better handle on herself than she did when she beat Andy Cullen into the ground all those years ago.

God, she should stop thinking about it. Her body always buzzed when she harped on it for too long.

Surprisingly, even with all her fears weighing her down, the farther they got from Possum Springs the better Mae began to feel. She kept giving nervous glances out her window, knowing that at any moment she could look outside and the whole road, all the trees, even the sky, could start blending into shapes.

But the sky stayed blue and the trees stayed trees.

“Are you alright?”

The calm but husky voice of her travel companion snapped Mae right back to where she belonged, “Yeah i’m fine. Just checkin' for shapes.”

“Oh,” Bea became stiff, she really didn’t know how to respond to that, “Did you...Find any?”

“Nope! We are shape free Beabea,” Mae looked over at Bea and smiled widely which caused the other girl’s demeanor to relax.

“That’s good. If you uh, find some, Will you tell me?” Bea knew all about Mae’s problems and she often thought back to the night where Mae spilled it all out to her on that couch. It seemed like such a simple thing back then and only in the daytime was Bea able to realize how serious it really was and the confidence that it took Mae to tell her. She wanted more than anything to help.

Mae rubbed her hands together in the way she did when she was nervous, one on top of the other in a repeating motion, “Yeah! Of course…”

She trailed off. It should’ve lead to another warm silence but instead it was soured by Bea’s worry.

“Because, I really want to help you. I can’t do that though if I don’t know when something’s wrong,” She knew that Mae considered her Home and maybe a few months ago she didn't really get it, but now she wanted to live up to those high expectations.

“I know! I know,” Mae stopped moving her hands, “I’ll be honest. I was really afraid that I was gonna…” She couldn’t find the right word.

“Relapse?”

“Yeah that. I was afraid that when we left Possum Springs that something bad would happen and the world would come crashing down like it did in the cave or at the softball game,” Mae’s voice shook with the mention of the cave, “But it’s been like two hours? And nothing’s wrong yet so I think I’ll be fine!”

Beatrice reached one arm around her friend and gripped firmly at her shoulders. She wasn’t one for physical contact so this thing that she would barely call a hug was rough and needed improving, but Mae wasn’t about to tell her to stop.

When Bea let go Mae smiled out of some silly personal joy that she got from the ‘hug’, “I promise that if something goes wrong, you’ll be the first one I tell!”

Bea wasn’t new to responsibility or having people depend on her, it sucked like ninety percent of the time. But with Mae? She could get used to it.

 

-

 

“God Dammit, god fucking Dammit,” Bea continued to swear even as their car slowed down and pulled off to the side. Thankfully they were out on a fairly secluded road with daylight still raging on.

Their tire had popped.

Just when it was going so well…

Mae didn’t know what to do with her hands or her mouth or anything, never having driven before she was at a loss on how to respond to most major car things. Instead she just watched her friend deflate and rest her forehead against the wheel with a slight ‘ _ thump _ ’.

A stressed out silence permeated the car.

Mentally, Bea went through the entire contents of her vehicle. She was  _ too  _ responsible to not have a spare tire in the back of her trunk at all times. She had her toolbox that she used when she went out on repair jobs.  But did she have a car jack?

Quickly she got out to check telling Mae to just stay in the car.

“Why do I have to stay?!” Mae’s legs were tired with inactivity and she wanted nothing more than to run around the car maybe four or five times.

“Because involving you in this process will just make it fifty times worse than it already is.”

Mae crossed her arms, “You’re just saying that because you’re stressed.”

“Maybe,” Bea said, finding the car jack in the bottom of the trunk next to the spare tire. She lugged the pristine spare out of the trunk along with the car jack and rolled it over to the flat.

Meanwhile Mae sat in the car, thumping her little legs on the floorboard. She wanted to get out, she wanted to  _ run _ . Damn Bea and her no fun agenda. She was gonna get out anyways.

“Mae what the hell are you doing, Bea said, her voice coming from the ground while she lifted the car up with the jack. She had rolled up her signature dress sleeves to prevent them from getting dirty in the process.

“I’m ignoring the authority!”

“Well the  _ authority’s  _ about to cancel this fucking road trip if you run farther than the  _ authority  _ can see you,” Bea said, playful annoyance biting her tone.

“I wouldn’t have to run around if you’d let me help you!”

“I don’t need help Mae.”

“How d’you even know how to do this stuff? I didn’t think you were a mechanic?” Mae made her way to the side of the car Bea was on so she could pretend to know things too.

“I’m not but you’d be surprised how many people mistake a repair shop for a car repair shop,” Bea took the tire iron from her tool kit and began unscrewing the flat tire.

“Not really, I actually thought your dad did car stuff back in the day?”

“He did,” Bea grunted slightly as she worked at the flat tire, “The Pickaxe used to, I mean. We don’t do it anymore because there wasn’t enough of a need but I picked up a lot from watching the boys do car stuff.”

Mae looked at the trunk of the car, resisting the urge to jump up on it as it would only make Bea’s job harder, “Did your dad really only hire guys?”

Bea grunted again as a confirmation, “Yeah but it was just the times you know?”

“I think that saying it was ‘the times’ and using that to justify it is kind of bad?”

“That’s what it was. Now it’s just evolved into good ol’ sexism,” Bea finally got the tire off and rolled it to the side, Mae had to restrain herself from poking it and pushing it into the nearby ditch.

“Huh, weird? I mean you’re a girl and you basically run the whole thing.”

“...” Bea got up from her spot and rolled the spare tire closer to where the flat was.

Mae took the silence as a stopping point in that line of questioning. Before she might’ve been dumb enough to mistake Bea’s reluctance to continue talking as an sign to keep plowing through the conversation. Now she knew when to stop. Well she knew when to stop maybe nine times out of ten.

The sun was close to setting and Mae let the conversation go, listening to the quiet sounds of Bea using the tire iron next to her. It was nice out too, despite the slight chill in the air. It was pretty cool Mae thought, that Bea knew how to do useful stuff like this.

‘ _ Not cool that you barely know how to drive much less fix a tire _ ’

Mae shuddered, not from the cold. Again the voice was correct but sometimes honesty hurt. Blugh.

Wanting to distract herself from her own mind she looked over at Bea while she was working, her arms in a rare moment of exposure. Mae was pretty sure that in all the time that she knew Bea she had never seen her upper arms.

They were...Surprisingly muscular. That observation almost knocked Mae square on her ass.

“Bea you are like super ripped what the hell???”

Bea stopped working to look over at Mae with the most judgemental squint yet, “What?”

“Your arms Beabea!” Mae gestured excitedly, “You’ve been carrying those guns without a license!”

Her friend snorted and rolled her eyes dramatically, “I’m not ‘ripped’ or whatever, I’ve just been doing a lot of heavy lifting practically my whole life. I’m just toned,” She had never really seen muscles, much less her own, as a point of attraction and for a second she thought she was missing something but then she remembered who she was talking to. Mae ‘wrestle for a first date’ Borowski.

Mae put her hands on her friend's shoulders, “You have to let me touch them.”

The conviction in Mae’s voice almost made Bea drop her tire iron, “Excuse me?”

“Your arms!! You’re like the second buffest person I’ve seen in real life!?”

Bea felt like this whole road trip had just been one long eye roll, “That’s a pretty sad line-up,” She looked at the tire then at Mae, whose entire demeanor seemed to be pleading at her.

“If I let you do this will you let me finish the damn tire change?”

“Yeah yeah yeah!”

Mae’s ‘nightmare’ eyes lit up and Bea felt something inside her stir, ‘ _ She’s pretty cute when she’s excited about stupid shit. _ ’

What? No that...That wasn’t something she just thought. Shut up already Bea.

With mock reluctance she held out her arm to her friend and Mae knelt down on the ground with her.

This was a weird evening so far for Mae, to say the least. One of Bea’s first real signs of physical affection (excluding when she held her after the cave in) happened near immediately in line with...Whatever this was! She was basically given permission to touch Bea’s muscles which was a scenario that had never even occurred to her before. Life was beautiful.

Shakily, Mae started with the wrist and slowly went upwards. She didn’t really know the etiquette for touching someone much less touching a kind of weirdly specific part of them. 

It didn’t help that Bea was snickering at her all the while.

“Don’t laugh!”

“Sorry! It’s just kind of awkward? I didn’t really know how else to react to be honest,” Bea retracted her arm, rubbing at the spots that were now sensitive from Mae’s touch.

“So that means I should stop and this was just another bad idea from me?”

“No Mae, you don’t have to stop. I know you, for some reason, want to do this. I promise I won’t laugh anymore,” Bea took a breath to sober herself and extended her arm out to Mae again.

“Maybe like...Flex?”

Bea rolled her eyes for what seemed to be the tenth time that day, “Alright,” She acted like it was a slight hassle but that was only because she was Beatrice Santello and she didn’t really know how to do anything other than that.

Her ‘totally not at all muscular’ arms bulged slightly with the effort of flexing them. It almost made Bea embarrassed to show off like this, even if it was just to Mae. But the fact that it was to Mae of all people almost made it more embarrassing. Like she was trapped in some kind of shy/not shy paradox.

Meanwhile, Mae was absolutely frozen with a shyness of her own. A slightly gayer shyness but a shyness nonetheless. She knew that she was an idiot for having a tiny crush on Beatrice Santello, she knew she’d be an idiot for having ANY kind of crush on her best friend. But this? Convincing Bea to let her do this was a new rung on the idiot scale for her. If there was anything that could make Mae fizz out it was either her best friend or muscular people. And goddamn Beatrice for being both.

Mae reached out slowly and awkwardly grabbed Bea’s bicep. Even if Bea was right and it wasn’t as impressive as Mae was making it out to be, it was still pretty darn great. Mae wanted to continue her worship of her friend’s muscles but her face was starting to get noticeably red and her brain was beginning to cloud over with too many thoughts, all of them happening at once in a drone of ‘oh my god I’m gay’.

As quick as a gunshot Mae let go and turned around, speed walking towards the passenger seat, “Thatwasgreatthankyoui’llbeinthecar.”

Bea sat on the ground, a little stunned with the quickness of her friend’s exit, “Uh? Okay?” This wouldn’t be the first time Mae has acted weird over something small like that so she’d let it slide.

While she was finishing up the tire, she would still feel small phantom touches where Mae’s hands had been and for a few seconds her mind would drift and fall into a pretty weird and confusing ravine of thoughts.

‘ _ Whatever. _ ’


	3. Totally No Problem

"This isn't very good.”

 “Yea, not really,” Mae put down her pizza on her dingy diner plate. This establishment was five times as cozy as the one in Possum Springs but its pizza? Well it wasn’t even fit to be on the pizza scale.

They had stopped at the closest diner they could find for something quick to eat before they reached the first town in their path. The kind of place that was open twenty four hours a day and serviced mainly truckers.

Beatrice unfolded the map she had bought at the last gas station. At some point the fear of not knowing where they were going prompted her to stop and pick something up, “It looks like we’re close to Davey Town, we could find a motel there and stop for the night?”

“...” Mae folded her arms up and stared at Beatrice with a stare that she picked up from watching her mom try to guilt trip her into doing things.

“...Are you alright?”

She continued to pout.

With a long sigh Beatrice put the map back into her purse, “I know you wanted me to be more spontaneous about stuff and that you had a fun time pointing us in whatever direction you felt like-”

“It would’ve been the right one!”

“But! Don’t you think it was spontaneous enough for me to even be going on this trip?”

Mae leaned back in her seat and looked at the dirty ceiling of the diner, the finishing on the panels were peeling away after years of being in service, “I guess. I wanted to just get lost though.”

Beatrice pinched the bridge of her nose in exhaustion, “And we would’ve been if I kept following your directions. I appreciate your wanderlust but not if it’s going to wind up with us getting lost right off a cliff.”

Mae threw her hands up, “And that would’ve been so romantic! Like the movies!”

“Unlike the movies we are not actors who can miraculously survive jumping into the grand canyon and climbing out just in time for the red carpet."

“But we could be.”

“We can’t act,” Bea watched as her friend tried to take another stab at the disgustingly cheap pizza, “Don’t eat too much of that I don’t want you to get sick.”

“Our names! Up in lights! Mae Borowski and Beatrice Santello!” Mae dropped the pizza back onto the plate and grabbed the fork the waitress gave her (who eats pizza with a fork?) and pretended it was a microphone, “We’re here today to celebrate our beloved small town star- Beatrice Santello! Most well known for her roles as Screaming Corpse and Shadow.”

“Mae…” Bea was trying to look embarrassed but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling just a little bit.

“And what movie premiere are we all...vivaciously looking forward to tonight?”

Bea snorted, “I’m not sure if that’s the right word miss reporter.”

Mae winked and whispered, “Just go with it!”

“Well…” Beatrice looked around the diner, not a lot of people were there and the ones that were seemed to not be hearing this, “I just got done with the shooting of Swamp Husband Two, I played damsel in distress number four and my death was the bloodiest in the series.”

Snickering Mae asked, “And what did all the other damsel’s have to say about that?”

Bea shrugged and pompously said, “They all flipped when they realized I got to spend more time being cut apart by the Swamp Husband.”

“And the Husband, was his actor a looker?”

“Not really, but if you cover enough people in goo and moss they at least become a little attractive.”

“I’ll have to try that with  _ my  _ husband!” Mae giggled.

Bea was giggling too, however her ‘giggling’ was more along the lines of a husky chuckling, “I heard it works wonders for-”

She was cut off by the waitress, a stern looking woman in her forties, coming over and slamming the check down on their table.

For a second all the laughing stopped and all that they heard was the flickering of the busted lights above them.

Then the waitress left and they burst into laughter again.

 

-

 

“Do you think she was, hah, angry at us?” It was a few minutes after they left and Mae was still trying to quiet her laughter.

“I think she was more mad that we barely touched the pizza,” Bea was smiling, she was still in the afterglow of ‘busting a gut’ which was apparently what she did according to Mae.

“I’ve seriously never heard you laugh that much,” Mae looked at her friend, she was still buzzing with excitement; Anytime she could get Bea to laugh was the best kind of time, “Well not since the Ft. Lucenne fish fountain at least.”

“Well maybe you just do that to me.”

“Do what?”

“...Make me happy.”

For a second neither of them talked. Mae’s head felt turned inside out from that statement and like her guts were falling out but in a nice way? She didn’t know what to make of it, whether it had romantic intent or not, but regardless...It made her feel good.

Mae looked at Bea and caught her nervously glancing at her.

“You make me happy too.”

 

-

 

The motel wasn’t as dank as Mae had thought it would be. On the outside it was in obvious disrepair, even if the shadows of night covered it up. But inside? Most of the rooms seemed to be recently renovated; Thank fake God for that.

After talking to the mousy looking guy at the counter they were hooked up with, what was supposed to be a two bed room. However, when they got in...Well yeah. It only had one bed.

“What the fuck?” Bea’s shoulders slumped. She wasn’t completely averse to sharing a bed with her friend (they’ve shared a couch before this is just the upgrade to that) but she hated it when things didn’t turn out like they should.

The mousy guy, Mae thought he looked like a ‘Steve’, just shrugged and said, “We lost a lot of our beds to a really bad mold infestation a few weeks back. We’re still trying to order more.”

“It’s fine. Thanks,” Bea said dejectedly.

“Whatever,” Steve scurried off down the hallway, probably having some super important Sudoku book to get back to or something.

Welp.

“Sleepover!!” Excitedly, Mae jumped onto the bed; It was way comfier than it looked.

“It would’ve technically been a sleepover with two beds but...Yeah,” Bea trudged over to the bed and began taking her boots off. She was Extremely tired.

Mae crawled up next to her and hung her legs off the side of the motel bed. With a bitterness she realized that she was too short to touch the floor, “Are you alright?”

Having not seen a no smoking sign on their way in, Bea lit up a cigarette (probably the tenth one she had that day?) and took a drag off of it, “Yeah.”

“You don’t sound alright.”

“I know.”

“Ugh!!!” Mae threw her hands up and jumped off the bed to confront Bea directly, “You already did this today!”

To her credit, Bea looked genuinely confused, “Did what?”

“This! The vague but not even vague at all thing!”

“I didn’t realize I was doing a ‘Thing’,” Bea felt aggressiveness leak into her tone.

“I don’t want you to be sad, this whole thing was supposed to make you not sad or stressed or whatever!” Mae felt her sudden anger lessen, being replaced with a hopeless frustration, “And if you  _ are  _ upset, I just want to help…”

The atmosphere that set in after that was awkward and heavy; Only punctuated by Bea’s smoking. Mae didn’t know if she did something wrong. She never knew. It was like the time after that party or all those times before that. All she wanted to do was be there for Bea but she screwed even that up.

“I’m sorry,” Bea finally said.

“What? No, don’t be. I’m being dumb by trying to get you to talk about stuff anyways,” Mae nervously ran her hands through her hair. She would need to dye it again soon.

“You’re not being dumb. I’m just being the hypocrite I always am,” Bea patted the spot next to her for Mae to sit back down on, “When we first left for this road trip I made you promise to tell me if anything was going wrong with you. I was selfish then and didn’t realize that should apply to me too.”

Mae scooched up next to Bea, putting a hand on her arm, “Well, my problems’ are a little more scary. I mean your depression has never made you beat some kid’s face in before. Don’t beat yourself up about not revealing all this like, Super personal information and like your feelings you know?”

“...”

“But even then, I still want to help you. It’s just a matter of whether you want me to or not,” Mae glanced up at her friend to find that she was looking at her again.

“You already help me more than you know. Just by being here.”

“Bea…”

She turned to face Mae a little better, and suddenly Mae was caught in another intense staring contest, “Ever since we got into that fight, ever since my mom died and my dad broke down. I haven’t really had anyone there for me. Sure I had Angus and Jackie but, I don’t how to explain it…I guess they listen differently than you do.”

Mae realized that the sound that was filling her ears was her own heartbeat, “Angus is a great listener though,” ‘ _ Goddammit Mae that is obviously not what she meant _ ’

Bea smiled slightly, “Yeah he is. But he wouldn’t get me to go on a road trip and try to get us lost just to cheer me up.”

Mae was at a loss for words, she couldn’t decide what to say next or if she should even say anything. The more she talked the more she risked her big dumb mouth messing up this moment even more than it already has.

“At the store,” Bea stopped smiling and even looked conflicted about what she was going to say, “I really don’t have any power at all. Not over the workers at least.”

“But I see you boss them around all the time!”

“Yeah but on my dad’s orders,” Bea looked away and sighed, “If I try to get them to do anything that  _ I _ want them to do then I have to force and hound them until they get up and effing do it. It’s just, frustrating.”

“...” Mae didn’t know what to say. She was used to people not listening to her but...Bea was those guys’ boss? They should just automatically listen to her.

“And I always hear them talk about me behind my back. The older ones are more respectful, unless it’s Creak. But I still hear the insults.”

“Creak? Fuck that guy.” Mae remembered what Bea had said back when they had that fight, the one that was almost as bad as when they were kids. Creak was not good news, “If he says anything it’s wrong.”

Bea rolled her eyes, “Ugh, don’t I know it? But the other guys they just,” Bea took another drag, “They just don’t believe in the authority I’m supposed to have over them. Like I’m just some joke taking my dad’s place or a note on a fridge reminding them to clean up after themselves.”

“Beabea I…” Mae got up and walked over to the small desk in their motel room holding the even smaller cable t.v. She stared at it for a a few minutes before kicking it harshly with her boot, “Ugh.”

“What’s wrong?” Bea flicked her cigarette ashes into the ashtray on the bed side table.

“Hearing what was bothering you made me so frustrated and I was gonna beat up this desk or this t.v or something. But I know you wouldn’t like that so...” Mae sighed and gave another pathetic kick to the desk, “I just. Wanna go back to Possum Springs so I can punch all those guys in the stomach and like, make them listen to you.”

Bea got up and and grabbed Mae gently by the shoulders, leading her back to the bed where she couldn’t potentially smash a t.v screen into shards, “I might be hanging around you too much but, I kind of want that too. Just a little.”

Mae smiled, “So it’s settled? The second we get back to Possum Springs I can single handedly beat the shit out of your repair crew. Starting with Creak?”

Bea shrugged, “It wouldn’t change things. Violence usually just makes things worse.”

“Ugh I know…”

Beatrice pulled Mae in for another, slightly awkward, half hug, “I know that you care and that means a lot, but It’ll be fine. This is just how things are and how they’re probably always going to be.”

“It really shouldn’t be like that.”

“I know."

They two stayed like that for a another few seconds and then Mae separated herself from the hug, “Before we go to bed can we get ice cream?”

Bea snorted, “We don’t have to end every emotional conversation with ice cream. But, regardless, no. I’m about to pass out.”

“UGH you are no fun Beatrice Santello,” Mae stomped the ground but went to the bathroom to change clothes anyways.

‘ _ And you wouldn’t want it any other way _ ’


End file.
